Cosmetic camouflage improves quality of life among teens and younger children who are negatively impacted by visible vascular or pigmentary conditions, reports researchers in an article appearing in the September issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatololgy.
University of Montreal researchers used the Children’s Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI) to assess the use of cosmetic camouflage on 41 children, five years and older, with visible vascular and pigmentary conditions. While there are several studies showing quality of life benefits from cosmetic camouflage for visible skin anomalies, this is the first study to quantitate the benefit using the CDLQI among children, according to study authors.
Hospital-based cosmeticians taught how to use cosmetic camouflage, and researchers assessed the children before and six months after the intervention.
At the study’s start, quality-of-life scores suggested a small impact (4.2 score) from vascular anomalies and a small to moderate (6.1 score) effect resulting from pigmentary anomalies. Six months later, children reported improved quality of life. The CDLQI score went from 5.1 at baseline to 2.1 at six months for the entire study population.
Taking a closer look at those findings, the researchers report CDLQI scores increased in two and were unchanged in eight subjects. Six patients whose scores remained the same from baseline to six months had a CDLQI score of zero.
“Both patients whose CDLQI scores increased were girls with Fitzpatrick skin phototype IV through VI and pigmentary anomalies: one applied cosmetic camouflage to her legs that stained pants, whereas the other found the color match deteriorated in autumn. Despite these outliers, our study and others have shown cosmetic camouflage to be well tolerated and acceptable to the majority of patients,” the authors write.
They found that children with the poorest baseline quality of life seemed to benefit most. Another finding: Children were more likely to continue using the cosmetic product if they had pigmentary anomalies.
The researchers note newer makeup formulations are less likely than older makeup to result in poor coverage of texture. And there are lots of brands available, they write.
“…the community dermatologist plays a critical role as an introduction point to the concept of cosmetic camouflage. Those interested can develop a network for their patients by learning about cosmetic camouflage from company representatives and identifying local cosmeticians qualified to provide cosmetic camouflage services,” they write.
